I had a whole house generator installed at my parents' house (7 total days without power this year). It had to go online to activate it. And the generator had to connect to the internet to do it. No WiFi near the generator (because Generators are noisy!). I had to call a phone number to get the activation code for the generator. Why does a generator need an activation code?

I had to put all of my networking IT skills in play just to get mom's robot vacuum to work... no WiFi or Internet in their house.

I have zero apps on my phone .... I do everything from a browser.

KISS .... bells & whistles suck ...

No more Cowbell solos .... or Cobells ... works for me!

On the "plus" side...

My Air Conditioning thermostat from the factory are Wi-Fi. I hate the idea that they are on-line. But programming the weekly schedule is far easier. And yes, I can reprogram it from my hotel room in Idaho...

My Garage door opener is now Wi-Fi. Again, convenient if I take an UBER home from the airport. But I am concerned that someone can hack my opener and get into the garage.

The idea that I need cameras in my refrigerator so I can look inside while I'm in the grocery store is just stupid. Or start my dishwasher, etc. Or start my car/open the door with my phone.

The biggest problem of all the connected stuff is it is almost all dependent on the vendor keeping the service up.

If I can run a box on my LAN to do the control, and have a separate network for the devices and nothing needs internet access unless I decide to allow it